"Tiki Moon" drabbles by Christopher

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 11

Tiki Moon #11

There was also a security gate with a guard, so I knew getting a close look at the final Mort Alexander wasn't going to be easy. I didn't want to sneak in and risk getting caught, so I parked across the street and waited to see if ole' Morty came in or out within a reasonable amount of time. I wanted to get home and shower before going off to the meeting at the Tiki Moon.

I waited until about 5:30 pm and I saw a car approaching the gate driven by a dark-haired man.

Could that be Morty?

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 10

Tiki Moon #10

The final destination was Beverly Hills, and I drove up there thinking that maybe the name the chickie had given me on the phone was fake and this was all for nothing. But I like to be prepared, and I didn't have anything better to do anyway.

The final Mort Alexander in the Los Angeles area lived in a palatial Tudor-style mansion that had been half-swallowed by some very hungry and persistent ivy. But what the gardener lacked in the ivy-pruning department he obviously made up for with the lawns, trees and bushes, which were perfectly manicured...

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 9

Tiki Moon #9

The phone could be in someone else's name, the landlord or the father of one of those kids. But I got a good enough look at all the guys there to know whether or not one of them turned out to be the man I was meeting at the Tiki Moon.

I turned and walked across the sand toward my car when I heard a girl yell, "Hey, Morton, where's the salt?" as she stood there flipping a fish filet.

I saw the one she addressed as Morton as he brought her a salt shaker.

Okay. One more to go...

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 8

Tiki Moon #8

I left this Mort Alexander to enjoy whatever time he had left on the clock, which could probably be measured with an egg timer, and drove west to Redondo. The address was a bungalow right on the beach, small but nicely painted and clean. There were gobs of college age students around back, grilling fish. There were surfboards leaned up against the sides of the house. I walked out onto the beach as if I were a tourist, looking up and down the coastline and occasionally back at the house.

But which one of those surfer dudes was Mort Alexander?

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 7

Tiki Moon #7

The Anaheim Rest Home for the Aged it was called, and boy did they look aged. I was peeking over the wooden fence into the back courtyard of the place and saw a sea of silver hair and slipping dentures as they tried to get through a game of badminton without any fatalities. I was wondering if one of these dinosaurs was Mort Alexander when one of the fossils yelled, "Get' em, Morty!"

I doubted this was him. This geriatric gulag probably had a bed check time that was much earlier than the 7:00 pm meeting I had with him...

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 6

Tiki Moon #6

I got in my Pontiac Torpedo and headed for Anaheim. I turned on the radio just in time to hear, "...and now here's the news for Thursday, September 22, 1949..."

The newsman rattled on about things for which I cared nothing, then threw it back to the DJ who enthusiastically said, "And now here's Perry Como with 'Bali Ha'i'..."

Mr. Como bored the hell out of me for three-and-a-half minutes before moving on to Dinah Shore, who further exorcised boredom's hell fires out of me.

But before long I was arriving at the first Mort Alexander's address...

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 5

Tiki Moon #5

I grabbed the phone book and looked up Mort Alexander. There were three in the Los Angeles area: one in Redondo Beach, one in Beverly Hills, and one in Anaheim. Anaheim was farthest out, so I decided to go there first, then go west to Redondo, then north to Beverly Hills. I wanted to check each one out without them seeing me so I would know what I was up against before I met with him. You can tell a lot about a man by where he lives and the way he lives...

That doesn't bode well for my reputation...

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 4

Tiki Moon #4

"So," I said, "how will I know this...boss of yours?"

"He'll be in a booth in the back right corner of the club. And he'll be wearing a red carnation on his lapel."

This was beginning to seem like some bad movie about espionage. But the weirder it sounded the more I wanted to find out what the hell it was all about.

"And what's his name?" I asked.

"Mort Alexander," she said in a quiet tone.

"And what's your name?" I asked nonchalantly.

She hung up before giving me an answer to my query.

Now I was really intrigued...

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 3

Tiki Moon #3

"I'm not a doctor, sweetie. You don't have to make an appointment. Just come to my office and..."

"No," she said, cutting me off. "It's not for me anyway, it's for my...boss."

Her...boss. That sounded a little shady. But I was intrigued.

"Well, where does your...boss want me to meet him?"

"At the Tiki Moon. It's a nightclub in...,"

It was my turn to cut her off. "I know where it's at, chickie. Gimme the day and the time."

"Tonight at 7. Can you make it?" she asked with a lilt in her voice that suggested hope.

"I'll be there."

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 2

Tiki Moon #2

Maybe I should start at the beginning. I was in my office on the Sunset Strip trying to get a few things done on a slow day. I'd just finished cleaning my pistol and was about to take a check from a satisfied customer to the bank when the phone rang.

"Jake Randolph here," I said as I picked up the receiver.

"Is this the Jake Randolph Detective Agency?" a woman's voice asked meekly on the other end.

"Well, it ain't a Chinese restaurant, honey," I said as I lit a cigarette.

"Well, then, I'd like to make an appointment."

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Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 1

Tiki Moon #1

The smell of gun smoke hung heavy around me like diseased air. The sounds of the shots that echoed through the warehouse were now ping-ponging in my ear canals. I wasn't sure where he was, but I knew he was close. I was crisscrossing between stacked crates, taking cover and then quickly peeking around them before moving to the next one. It's not a fair fight when only one party has a gun. And unfortunately I was on the short end of that particular scenario.

I turned a corner and came face to face with him.

And his gun...